Ziggy Marley, I.k. Dairo And World Music

August 30, 1991|By Chris Heim.

World music, like rock, R&B, jazz and just about any other style you can name, is not a static thing. Like quicksilver, it constantly changes shape and direction. Two shows in town this week vividly illustrate this continual evolution. One features an undisputed pioneer in what is perhaps Africa`s most familiar contemporary style, juju music, while the other highlights key figures in the changing sound of Jamaica`s most popular musical export, reggae.

Ziggy Marley, along with siblings Stephen, Cedella, and Sharon

(collectively known as the Melody Makers), carry a heavy burden as the children of reggae legend Bob Marley. Their father transformed the music that came from earlier ska and rock-steady styles into a polished, yet ardent form that was contemporary, international and socially conscious. A decade after his death, no one has really been accepted on a popular level as anything like Marley`s peer. At least, not until Ziggy and the Melody Makers appeared with

``One Bright Day`` and ``Conscious Party.`` While those two albums may have placed a bit more emphasis on the middle element in Bob Marley`s ``roots, rock, reggae`` equation, they were still firmly in his tradition. Then at the beginning of this summer, the Melody Makers released ``Jahmekya,`` the first album coproduced by the entire group and its decisive step into the future.

``Jahmekya`` draws together musical strands from throughout the African diaspora, building bridges to other styles with a similar heritage. The emphasis is decidedly contemporary. Just as early ska and reggae performers drew on (and often directly covered) the American R&B, James Bond themes and pop flotsam that floated over to Jamaica courtesy of Miami and New Orleans radio, so young performers now use the rap, hip hop and urban dance sounds popular on today`s airwaves. Ziggy and the Melody Makers are hardly alone here. In fact, a whole slew of ``dancehall`` reggae acts have been doing this for some time. What the Melody Makers add is some sophistication, social consciousness and, as Bob Marley`s heirs, a confirmation of the legitimacy and importance of this new direction. With that, both the Melody Makers and reggae itself at last begin to emerge from the long shadow cast by the late reggae giant. It`s hard to believe that Bob Marley, himself such a potent force for innovation, wouldn`t approve.

(Opening for Ziggy Marley and the Melody Makers Sunday at Poplar Creek are Queen Latifah and Crystal Waters. Latifah is at this point the unrivaled Queen of Rap, an astute, no-nonsense rapper (and one heck of a singer) who is taking the style in adventurous new musical directions as well. Crystal Waters is more ironically named, as her debut album ``Surprise`` (with the hit single, ``Gypsy Woman``) reveals she couldn`t carry a dribble of a tune in a bucket to save her soul. Now perhaps it`s not fair to make heavy esthetic demands of a style whose main purpose, after all, is to propel people across a dance floor. But it seems that record companies, with increasing cynicism, are propping up videogenic but otherwise talentless wonders whose work owes more to production teams and bits of electronic equipment in the studio than it does to any particular talents the purported ``artists`` possess.)